ISLAMABAD - PML-Q Parliamentary Leader in the National Assembly Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat Friday invited Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for an open public debate in front of media and civil society to answer some very specific questions regarding his and his familys alleged involvement in multi-million deals. If the Prime Minister is genuinely serious about accountability of the government and his own, he must accept my invitation, he said while talking to TheNation. He also added, I offer the Prime Minister to subject me to accountability in that debate with liberty. He said that the Prime Minister had announced on the floor of the House that accountability should begin with the government. I welcome his statement but his past record of the last 17 months speaks otherwise, he said adding that Prime Minister Gilani believed only in rhetoric. Faisal alleged that the speculation about Prime Ministers personal involvement in Rental Power Projects (RPPs) was growing in the masses given the undue haste exhibited by him in getting the cabinets approval for the power projects despite enormous opposition from various ministers. He alleged that the Prime Minister himself was defending the RPPs scam and all his statements about accountability of the incumbent government were nothing more than lip service to appease the masses. He said that ECC had approved the RPPs of 1500 megawatts capacity but the federal cabinet went a step ahead and okayed 2250 megawatt rental power plants. The PML-Q leader said that the government was reluctant to have validation of power plants, being imported in the country, through firms of international repute. He asked the government to get international validation for the power plants so that their actual cost as well as quality and technology could be assessed. Now, the government is talking about RPPs validation by the IMF which has no role to validate any such thing. It is like handing over Banazirs murder case to the UN to put the burning issue to the backburner, he averred. He said that the Prime Minister was protecting his Water and Power Minister who had failed to live up to his own challenge of a debate in the House. Now, the nation is pointing fingers at the Prime Minister himself and questioning his motives in shielding the alleged corrupt and incompetent ministers, he argued. The PML-Q central leader said that despite the passage of more than two weeks, no inquiry report about the misdeeds and extent of corruption of the sacked Steel Mills chairman, as had been announced by the Prime Minister himself on the floor of the House, had been presented before the nation. He said that Gilani had the habit of back peddling from his publicly made promises. The Prime Minister had invited the parliamentarians to bring corruption cases against the top government functionaries in the Parliament for debate but despite our repeated and urgent pleas, the government did not allow any such debate in the National Assembly session which clearly reflected its mindset, he said. Opposition is an important pillar of the parliamentary system and is the strategic partner in the parliamentary democracy in any civilian society, he said adding that the role of parliamentary opposition in any developed democracy had always been and would remain as the parliamentary watchdog. Faisal said that PML-Q would continue playing this role in and outside the parliament for developing and promoting democratic institutions. I once again strongly urge the government to form a parliamentary commission comprising two-thirds members from the opposition, as proposed by us and not by the governments handpicked people, to probe RPPs scam, he demanded. Faisal said that the PPP government for the last 17 months, apart from using rhetoric as a favourite deviating tactic, had been blatantly lying to the nation. All these statements are meant to cover up multiple failures of the government, he added. As the Prime Minister has announced that he is ready for accountability, I ask him to tell me as to how this accountability would be conducted and who would held the government accountable, he stated. Faisal Saleh Hayat said that both PPP and PML-N were acting in cahoots with each other. On the statement of the Prime Minister for the accountability of the government, PML-N took no practical step which indicates that they are hand in glove with the government, he added. Faisal said that all now knew it that both PPP and PML-N were pursuing mutually beneficial policies.